Sunday, March 21, 2010

Listen to me!!!

1 Kings 18:36-37 "And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again."

This little bit of scripture has meant a whole lot to me this week. I have learned so much (again!) this week. I pray that I take everything God says at His word. My goal is to truly listen to what he tells me and have total confidence in Him. It saddens me that this group of people we call the church doesn't truly listen to what God has commanded us to do. For years we have sat in our comfortable pews in air conditioned/heated sanctuaries closed off from the outside world. While we sit and listen to a nice entertaining "feel-good" message, the outside world is hurting. PEOPLE ARE CRAVING SOMETHING!!! We see it everyday. People are hungering for acceptance, love, truth. While they are hungering and thirsty, we have Sunday services where we feel if we come to church we've done enough. For years we have just tried to get people saved and that be good enough. It's so not enough! We think that if we put money in the plate or we sponsor missionaries, we've done enough. It's not enough. We have to come to the conclusion that JESUS commanded us to love our neighbors. Every neighbor...no matter what race, affliction, or illness.

A scripture that I have kept going back to the past two weeks has been Matthew 9:36 "But when he (Jesus) saw the multitude he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd."

My friends, fellow believers in the one true God, be moved with compassion for the multitude of people around you. If you want to see a multitude, let me know and I can now show you one. Look around you at the many faces. Each one has a story, each one is longing for something. Are you going to do as Jesus commanded us to and share His love with them? Or are you going to pass them along as you head to church next Sunday? What are you going to do??